This house is
barricaded
Taiwanese students storm government
headquarters after week-long sit-in of Parliament
SITTING
THEIR GROUND: SITTING THEIR GROUND: (L-R) Tsai
Ing-wen, Frank Hsieh and Su Chen-chang, top party members from the
main opposition Democratic Progressive Party, outside the Taiwanese
parliament as activists occupied the building early last
Wednesday.
FLOODED:
Protesters took over the main chamber in Taiwan's
parliament on March 19 and have remained there.
TAKEOVER:
(Right) Protesters, mainly college students, stormed
Taiwan's parliament and have barricaded themselves in with
chairs.
CLIMBING
IN: (Below) A protester climbs a ladder to get into
the Parliamentary building, where scores have been holed in for
close to a week.
PHOTOS: AFP
Taiwan riot police yesterday unleashed water cannons to
evict hundreds of demonstrators who had stormed government
headquarters, dramatically escalating a protest against a trade
pact with China.
After close to week-long occupation of Taiwan's parliament, the
protesters also infilitrated the Executive Yuan where the cabinet
offices are located. On Sunday night, they pulled down barbed-wire
barricades outside and used ladders to break into offices on the
second floor, reported AFP.
This came after President Ma Ying-jeou refused to
back down on the trade pact.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah, whose office is in the
Executive Yuan building, said at least 110 people were injured,
included 52 police officers, while 61 arrests were made.
Some protesters damaged windows and doors of
ministerial offices and tried to remove government documents before
they were stopped, officials said.
They added that the premier's office was not
breached.
Early on Monday, riot police dragged up people
sitting on the ground, and used riot shields to push the crowds
back while some of the demonstrators tried to grab their batons and
pelted them with plastic bottles.
Two water cannon trucks were then deployed,
eventually subduing the crowd and clearing the building.
"Suddenly water was spraying at us and it was very
powerful. My glasses flew off and I was very dizzy," said Mr Frank
Hsieh, a former premier from the opposition Democratic Progressive
Party (DPP).
WATER CANNONS
In a statement, the presidential office said the dispersal was
lawful and denounced the violence.
"We will not tolerate actions designed to paralyse
the government," it added.
But the DPP, which historically has favoured formal
independence for Taiwan, called on Mr Ma to respond to the
protesters' demands and scarp the pact.
"Forcible dispersals will only cause more students
and police to get hurt and are likely to trigger more outrage and
protests," the party said.
The president has warned that trade-reliant Taiwan
could be marginalised without the China agreement, which is
designed to further open up trade in services.
During the news conference on Sunday, President Ma
denounced the parliamentary sit-in before the protests spread to
the Executive Yuan.
"Is this the democracy we want? Do we have to do it
this way, risking the rule of law?" he asked.
The pact, signed last July, is a follow-up to a
sweeping economic cooperation agreement signed in 2010 to reduce
trade barriers between high-tech Taiwan and the world's
second-largest economy.
Some 200 protesters - mainly college students -
stormed the parliament last Tuesday and took over its main chamber
to stop Mr Ma's ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party from ratifying the
agreement.
Following the unruly scenes at the Executive Yuan a
short walk away, police showed no sign of intervening to retake
control of the chamber, where the protesters remain holed up.
Parliamentary speaker Wang Jin-pyng, who is from
the KMT party, has called for a peaceful resolution to the
sit-in.
News, The New Paper, Tuesday, March 25 2014, Pg 16-17
The PAP should count their blessings no citizens ever do the
same to them. Singaporeans are too kind.
